57 Memoir of the Survei/ of Travantore. [Januahy 



that he pays, the Moondoo is removed from the head or shoulders, 

 the hands united are raised for a moment, when the right is apphed 

 to the mouth, which is partly free from this polite barrier during the 

 interview, or rather the laxity or rigour with which it is guarded de- 

 pends on the relative ranks of the parties. This address would ap- 

 pear rather obsequious than respectful, but deserves not the charge 

 of servility. Amongst the higher order of Nairs, an elegance, al- 

 most dignity of demeanour, natural and superior to acquisition is not 

 imcommon. 



Most of the superior classes substituting physical purity for more 

 material virtues make frequent use of the bath, ablution is a neces- 

 sary preliminary to meals, the superior orders practice endless sub- 

 sidiary ones, but they are too fastidious in their notions of def ele- 

 ment, as they can scarcely leave their house, or be approached by 

 any of the lower classes, without undergoing some supposed pollu- 

 tion, many of the very lowest ranks (whose name is an invective) 

 so strongly feel the odious peculiarities attached to them that they 

 fly on the approach of a superior ; contact with them is regarded 

 as contagion, and with even the middling ones viewed only as a 

 less deep stain. To avoid the communication of such a taint when 

 delivering any article, they place it on the ground, putting a leaf 

 under it and retire ; indeed to avoid contact all classes throw 

 rather than hand what they may be desirous of giving ; it may be 

 added that this feeling, so destructive of social intercourse, extends 

 to the very lowest ranks, who view as a species of contamination 

 the touch of those beneath them in precedence. The women have 

 a profusion of dark hair, which they carelessly dispose in a knot on 

 the top of the head, on the fore part of which the men wear a single 

 lock, which arranged with artful foppery is an object of vanity with 

 the young ; in every instance this internal vegetation is removed 

 several times in the course of the year ; even the eye brows marked 

 only ty a thin line of hair share the denudation ; we could perhaps 

 wish the retrenchment extended to the nails of the hands, particu- 

 larly those of the right, which are regarded as becoming in propor» 

 tion to their length. 



If nudity be considered as provoking sensuality, the costume of 

 the people may afford some excuse for that ascribed to them, its 

 simplicity would denote its antiquity. The various classes have little 

 diversity of garment, nor indeed is any seen throughout the country ; 

 even foreigners (inhabitants of the eastern province &c.) assuming 

 the vesture of it, which requires but few cloths, consisting chiefly of 

 a cloth (known by the term Moondoo) passed round the waist and 



